Chapter 25: Secret Chamber

Although there were no autopsy tools, the appearance of Jintang's body and face after his death clearly showed that he died of poisoning.

Sure enough, Ling Tianshui examined his mouth, nose, eyes, and ears and said, "There's blood, phlegm, and vomit on the deceased's pillow. His throat and tongue are normal, but he appears to be suffocating, clearly due to stiff throat muscles. Looking at his limbs, he was convulsing before death. But I was next to him last night, and I didn't hear him cry for help. Apparently, the poison took effect, causing his muscles to stiffen, his body to become numb, and his consciousness to fall into a coma. He couldn't call for help, and he could only struggle to his death in his bed."

Cui Fufeng frowned slightly and asked, "Is it the same as the man who died on the canal?"

"Yes, this symptom is undoubtedly Aconitum."

As he said that, he laid Jin Tang flat on the bed and unbuttoned his clothes to check.

When Cui Fufeng was helping, he saw Jin Tang's left hand was clenched and curled up as if he was holding something.

"Strange, when having a spasm, the hands should be clenched into fists, but why are Jintang's hands clenched loosely?" Cui Fufeng asked.

Ling Tianshui took a look and said, "This proves that he was holding something in his hand until he died, and he didn't let go until rigor mortis set in, which is why his movements are still stiff."

"Rigor mortis only appears after death, so when did the thing he was holding disappear?" Cui Fufeng frowned and looked at Jin Tang's stiff hand carefully again. He frowned slightly and pointed at Jin Tang's finger to Qiandeng.

Qiandeng calmed himself down and looked down, only to see a thin, light black gray mark on Jintang's stiff and bent middle finger.

She lowered her head and looked around the bed, while Ling Tianshui and Cui Fufeng checked for traces on Jin Tang's body and the mattress, but after a careful search, they found nothing.

Qiandeng gestured with his hands and subconsciously looked back into the room, looking for something that matched the criteria.

But no. The room had been hastily cleaned after the gentlemen arrived, and apart from bedding, pillows, desks, cups and pots and other daily necessities, there was nothing extra in it.

She barely suppressed the grief in her heart: "When did Jin Tang die?"

Ling Tianshui said without hesitation: "Judging from the blue spots on the body, the time of death was probably around three o'clock last night."

"Earlier, when we examined Caoqu's body, I remember you telling the coroner that the poison from Aconitum takes effect very quickly, and that it only takes a short time for poisoning to lead to death."

"Indeed. If it's fast, it will only take a moment or so for the victim to start breathing rapidly and die from the poison."

"But he closed the doors and windows so tightly last night. No one should have been able to sneak in and murder him at three o'clock in the morning. So the poison must have been placed somewhere in the room long ago—"

As she spoke, her eyes swept across the room and finally landed on the teapot on the bedside table.

After all, in the empty room, the only thing Jintang could possibly touch was the pot of tea that was delivered last night.

Ling Tianshui and Qiandeng were in sync, and they immediately opened the teapot to take a look. They saw that there was half a pot of ordinary brown tea inside, and there was no sign of the presence of aconite.

However, there was only a teapot on the bedside table, and no trace of cups.

Cui Fufeng pointed at Jin Tang's clenched hand and said, "It seems that what he was holding before he died must have been that cup."

So the truth is about to come out.

Someone had poisoned the tea, and because the poison was aconite, it took effect very quickly. Jintang's muscles spasmed after drinking it, and the murderer likely took a long time to remove the cup, leaving the scene in this state.

Nie Hezheng, the Dali Temple's Secretary, hurried over at noon and brought with him the coroner from the yamen who specialized in detecting poisons.

After detecting the poison of Aconitum in the teapot at the scene, he made the same judgment as Ling Tianshui, that Jin Tang's time of death was indeed around three o'clock in the morning.

Under Cui Fufeng's supervision, the yamen runners thoroughly checked the house again. Apart from the doors and windows, there were no other ways to enter or exit the house, not even a rat hole.

"So, how did the murderer sneak into the house and poison the deceased?" Nie Hezheng fell into deep thought. "Could it be that the deceased opened the door for the murderer last night, and then he secretly poisoned her, said goodbye and left, and the deceased then locked the door again..."

Cui Fufeng said, "I'm afraid that's unlikely. After all, Jin Tang had disputes with many people yesterday, so the county lord deliberately arranged for him to stay in the innermost room and told him to keep the doors and windows closed. He knew he was in danger, so he wouldn't let anyone in quietly in the middle of the night."

Ling Tianshui said, "I live next door, and I'm always alert when I sleep. I might have missed someone sneaking past my door at night, but if someone next door opened the door and went in or out, I wouldn't have been able to miss it."

Although Nie Hezheng had never dealt with him before, seeing his imposing manner, he dared not question him. He only hesitated and asked, "Then... is it possible that the other party didn't go through the corridor, but went through the patio and sneaked in through the window?"

Cui Fufeng pointed to the mud in the courtyard and said, "If they had come from the courtyard, they would have left footprints. But I checked the area in front of the door at the time, and it was clean and there were no traces. And these footprints were left when we went around to the back and opened the window. The direction and the wet marks can be verified."

Nie Hezheng slapped his thigh and immediately said, "Then, Mr. Cui, this case is very simple. Since no one has entered or left since the deceased locked the door last night, and the poison was indeed in the teapot, then the murderer must have ground the aconite into powder and sprinkled it into the tea before serving it. The deceased felt thirsty that night and drank the poisoned tea without any precautions, thus causing his death."

Upon hearing this, Daimao, who was standing behind Qiandeng, suddenly changed his expression and nervously tugged at Qiandeng's sleeve: "County Lady, I...I didn't do it!"

"According to common sense, that's true. But this pot of tea happened to be delivered right under my nose."

Qiandeng spoke and gently patted the back of Daimao's hand, indicating that she didn't need to be nervous.

"Last night, when Daimao went to get this pot of tea, Meng Langjun and I were there. There were three or four teapots boiling on the kitchen stove, and the cook was busy, so Daimao was told to help herself. I saw her enter the kitchen and casually pick up a pot without even opening it to examine it. Furthermore, we walked together the entire way she delivered the tea, which proves she carried the pot with her and absolutely did not tamper with it until she reached Jintang's room."

"I was in Jin Langjun's room at the time, leading the team to clean up the broken cups and plates." Aunt Xuanji also spoke up to defend Daimao. "After Daimao brought the water in, he placed it directly on the table without saying a word. When I saw that the room was cleaned up, I said goodbye to Jin Langjun and left with Daimao and Nanny Wu. We can all prove that Daimao only put down the teapot after entering the room. There is no way he could have done anything wrong."

Nie Hezheng didn't get discouraged when his judgment was easily overturned. He just asked, "If that's the case, is it possible that something went wrong with the kettle when it was in the kitchen?"